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LeBron James has won less than half of his appearances in
the NBA Finals. Michael Jordan was 6-0 in the NBA Finals, with six MVPs. This
is the story that pundits like ESPN First
Take host, Skip Bayless, paint with regards to LeBron’s most recent failure
in the Finals. In their eyes, LeBron’s team has not come out on top and he has
not performed perfectly on the NBA’s biggest stage, his legacy as an all-time
great is diminished.

While these numbers are factually correct, the picture it
paints is far from complete. You might as well say Dwyane Wade had an awful,
injury-laden career, based off the fact that his last two seasons were a
struggle in terms of health.

Twelve players are on a team. Five players are on the floor.
A general manager, head coach, and owner are all vital to an NBA team’s
success. But the media, market, and fans hype up the individual superstars like
Kevin Durant and LeBron James because they are the most entertaining and what
ultimately bring sponsorships and revenue to the league.

If anything, these 2014 NBA champion, San Antonio Spurs,
should have taught us that it’s the twelve players combined not solely the
individual superstar that wins titles. The evidence is right in front of our
faces. While some people may be crazy enough to argue Kawhi Leonard is a better
player than LeBron because he had a better Finals series this year, here’s
something that we can all agree on: if you were to pick one player out of the
two 2014 NBA Finals rosters to build an organization around, that player would
be LeBron James.

One player can win regular season games. One player wins a
regular season MVP. It takes a team to win an NBA championship—something I emphasized
in an old column discussing why
rings don’t equate to greatness. Where this nuances is how far a great
player can take you in the playoffs.

A great player should be able to carry a greater percentage of the load that it takes to
win an NBA game, season, and championship. This is something that puts great
players in more frequent contention for titles.

Mario Chalmers was doing a whole lot of nothing to help Miami win the 2014 NBA Finals.

My problem is this establishment of an arbitrary difference between losses in the preliminary rounds of the playoffs and the NBA Finals. A great player will
be able to defeat teams with superior depth for so long in the playoffs. That
ability to carry a team may last through the first or second rounds, or it may
last until the Finals. In some cases, a great player may even defeat a superior
team in the Finals—you could certainly make that argument for the 2013 NBA
champion, Miami Heat.

LeBron lifting a relatively poor Heat team as far as he did
is a testament to his ability. His engine carried the Heat to the Finals but the
strategic bumps placed by Gregg Popovich stopped the LeBron train in its
tracks. Even the inconsistent Pacers had a deeper team than the Heat, but LeBron was
able to push through. Sure, the Eastern conference was horrendous compared to
the West, but the Heat won the East. The hypotheticals of how the Heat would
have fared in the Western conference playoff bracket are entertaining but
ultimately irrelevant to this particular discussion.

Michael Jordan was not undefeated in the playoffs. His first
six seasons he did not even make it to the NBA Finals. In his first three
seasons, Jordan won a grand total of one playoff game. For comparison, LeBron
took the Cavaliers to the Finals in his fourth season and won seven games in
his third season. These numbers suggest not that LeBron is better than Jordan
(or even that Jordan is better than LeBron). They show that great players are
only able to do so much.

When discussing the NBA greats across and within
generations, you cannot isolate a statistic like an individual’s record in the Finals
and claim it alone differentiates two players. As I have done in my own
analysis of the greatest
NBA players of all time, there is too much more to consider. LeBron’s
window to become the GOAT is slowly closing. But, if he gets to five or six
championships and six or seven MVPs along with all the other accolades he has
earned, maybe the LeBron
vs. Jordan comparison becomes relevant again. Regardless, the fact that two of his
three Finals losses were to superior teams should not detract from his legacy
in any way.

Miami vs. San Antonio, Round 2. Somehow Ol’ Man Duncan and
Manu managed to climb atop the Western conference yet again…but this time they
didn’t catch me by surprise. After making anyone with a predictive bone in
their body stick their foot in their mouth last year, I made sure to give the
Spurs some love back in September—vaulting them to the no.1 seed that they would indeed eventually earn. The Miami Heat unsurprisingly
made it back for the fourth consecutive time in the LeBron era…and a year where
the Eastern conference was particularly pathetic.

Even though Miami is undoubtedly one of the top teams in the
league, it’s like comparing Andy from Shawshank
Redemption fighting through raw sewage to escape prison to some guy just
handing you the key to the prison gates. Would you rather face Dallas,
Portland, and Oklahoma City…or Charlotte, Brooklyn, and Indiana? Alas, the
parity between the two conferences is something that has been questionable for
years and is just a fact of life at this point.

Harvey Araton of the New York Times believes
that there is an even greater problem within the NBA in terms of parity. While
there is merit to his claim that there is “no place for a miracle on hardwood”
he neglects the overarching differences between the NBA and other professional
sports (MLB, NFL, and NHL). While I could spend an entire column on this
subject (hmmm…) the NBA has smaller rosters and fewer players on court, which
allow for superstars to have an overwhelming impact on the game. Moreover, the
playoffs have seven-game series, unlike the NFL, which limits upsets for the
obvious reason that it’s more difficult for an underdog to pull off four upsets
than it is to pull off one. Enough of that discussion for now, let’s get on to
the 2014 NBA Finals matchup…

Adi Joseph of the USA
Today acutely pointed out that “LeBron James is LeBron James,” in his Finals preview but the Miami Heat bring more than just the King to the
table. Rashard Lewis stepped up in the final two games of the Eastern
conference finals, drilling 9-of-16 threes and scoring 31 points. Ray Allen went
berserk in Game 3 of the conference finals, hitting all four of his threes in
the final quarter to help seal a critical win for the Heat.

Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade have also been valuable to Miami’s
success. At this point in time, Wade might be the most underrated player in the
NBA, simply because so many people have counted him out. The coaching staff did
limit his minutes during the regular season…but that was all in preparation for
this very moment. Wade’s playoff contribution of 19-4-4 on 52 percent from the field,
39 percent from three, and 80 percent from the line will be of paramount importance
to expand upon in the Finals. James is well aware of Wade’s abilities and
strengths, namely driving to the rim and scoring off of backdoor cuts, and has
been instrumental as usual in getting the best in his teammates, like Wade.

Bosh’s offensive game has morphed into something deadly for
opponents. During this regular season, Bosh shot almost five times more threes
than his career average, and made a respectable 34 percent of them. In the
playoffs, he’s jumped to hitting more than 40 percent of his 4.2 3PA per game.
This added wrinkle to his game is vital not only to putting points on the board
but also to spread out opposing defenses. Bringing David West and Roy Hibbert
out to the three point line provides room for Bosh to take them to the basket
or gives LeBron and Wade spacing to do that themselves. Gregg Popovich will
have his hands full trying to decide how to match up with Bosh for that very
reason. Duncan and Tiago Splitter on the perimeter is a bad idea. I would look
for Boris Diaw to spend some time on CB. Offensively, Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka mildly resemble James and Bosh, so I expect Popovich will figure out a
way to match up and limit Bosh and LeBron as much as possible.

Tony Parker’s ankle soreness will probably subside by the
time the Finals start, but if it doesn’t, that will certainly impact the way
the series plays out. Cory Joseph stepped up in Game 6 of the Western
conference finals when called upon to fill in during Parker’s absence and there’s
no reason to believe he couldn’t be effective in the Finals. Whether it is
Parker or Joseph, the prospective defensive assignment of Mario Chalmers or
Norris Cole is not very intimidating.

Kawhi Leonard will undoubtedly spend heavy minutes defending
LeBron James. In case you missed last year’s Finals, here’s how LeBron felt
when he saw Kawhi was checking back into the game during Game 5:

This is the series—and team—that the Spurs have been
preparing for all year. Most NBA fans will probably be rooting for Tim Duncan
to win one final championship and ride off into the San Antonio sunset, but I
would argue a San Antonio championship provides something more. Nobody on the
Spurs has the ability to go off for 35 points (unless Danny Green his 10+
threes in San Antonio…and maybe I shouldn’t rule that out). Their fluid offense
and reliance on ball movement should be something that other teams seek to
emulate because if the Spurs can make it this far—and possibly win a
championship—win no bona-fide superstar, then other teams should seek to mold
their personnel in a similar manner.

Danny Green’s consistency is the X-factor going into the
Finals because if he cannot find his three-point stroke in Miami…it is going to
be a long (or perhaps more aptly, a short) series. LeBron will be the defensive
stopper for Miami and spend time on some combination of Parker, Ginobili, and
Sugar K Leonard, whoever is hottest at a given moment. Spreading the attack will
be key for San Antonio. It’s something they have been able to do all season
long, and Miami’s defense won’t be able to silence that entirely. This will
definitely be a long series, and I don’t expect many blowouts like there were
in the Western conference finals. But just like I said at the beginning of this
year that I wouldn’t discount the Spurs because of their age, I’m not picking
against LeBron with his current squad.

The San Antonio Spurs has their hands full, facing now both the MVP and the best
player in the game in the same post-season. I don't see them beating both. Miami in 7.